Listen to Gemma’s homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B, in which she explains how her experience of poverty in Brazil gave radical significance to Christ’s words: “Make your home in me as I make mine in you.”

On this week's episode of "Preach," Bishop Stowe shares how he connects the image of the Good Shepherd from the Gospels to the climate crisis.

Good preaching requires mastery of rhetoric, particularly the tools of repetition and organization, says John Baldovin, S.J. But also, he adds with hyperbolic emphasis, “you have to read, read, read, read, read and pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.”

“The idea of a preacher who sings as a part of their homily is part of many African American cultural traditions,” explains Kim Harris. “The songs carry so many of our stories, hopes, and beliefs, and what we’re thinking about and believing and preaching about.”

Right there at the cross, in Jesus, our humanity doesn’t fall beyond its edges. Even there, even then, he continues to love. And even in that dense darkness—or loneliness—that he experiences as a human being, he doesn’t let himself forget that he is loved too.

Ed Foley, O.F.M. Cap., discusses how, when preparing one of his homilies, he meticulously annotates his manuscript, like a conductor’s score. “Where’s the crescendo? Where’s the pause? When do the trumpets come in?”